August 9, 2016
Team USA Men’s Rugby Sevens Loses to Argentina at Death
Photo: Team USA Men’s Rugby Sevens
Doug Coil
The Team USA Men’s Rugby Sevens lost a heart breaker 17-14 to Argentina with no time on the clock. The match saw Argentina with three yellow cards, two players leaving with injuries and a controversial try awarded to Argentina after a TMO clearly showed the ball being knocked on.
Argentina controlled the early tempo and much of the possession early in the match and took the lead four minutes into the contest as Axel Müller went in for a try. Gastón Revol converted for a 7-0 lead.
On the restart Perry Baker fielded the ball, but Santiago Alvarez was sent to the bin on a dangerous tackle. The USA could not take advantage prior to halftime, so the score remained 7-0 in Argentina’s favor.
Argentina continued their physical pressure in the second half as Madison Hughes was hit just after clearing the ball, but play continued. Argentina attacked and a try was saved by a Danny Barrett tackle. Fernando Luna took the quick tap for Argentina and dove in for an apparent try. A TMO clearly showed the ball was knocked on prior to a try being scored, however Craig Joubert awarded a try anyway. The conversion was missed, but Argentina had a 12-0 lead.
Both Zack Test and Nate Ebner were second half replacements and Nate Ebner contributed with physical defense and Zack Test with his offense.
Test sold a dummy and sped down the pitch for an apparent try. Matías Moroni tackled high and was sent to the bin. A TMO showed that Test grounded the ball just prior to scoring. A penalty try was however awarded. Madison Hughes converted to narrow the score to 12-7.
After the restart, a third yellow was given to Juan Imhoff. On the ensuing penalty, Barrett offloaded to Baker and then the second phase had Baker offloading to Danny Barrett for a try. The conversion was made by Hughes and the USA took a 14-12 lead.
With a minute left in the match, Argentina was back at full strength and found a gap in the USA defense for Matías Moroni to score a try in the corner and gain a 17-14 win.
The USA will take on Brazil at 5pm ET in their second match.
During the match two Argentina players, Rodrigo Etchart and Javier Rojas went off with injuries. Nicholas Bruzzone has been named as an injury replacement.
The first round of Olympic Men’s Rugby Sevens produced several upsets on the day.
- Australia 14-31 France
- South Africa 24-0 Spain
- Great Britain 31-7 Kenya
- New Zealand 12-14 Japan
- USA 14-17 Argentina
- Fiji 40-12 Brazil
Team USA Rugby Sevens Squad – Rio 2016 Olympic Summer Games
1. Carlin Isles 2. Ben Pinkelman 3. Danny Barrett 4. Garrett Bender 5. Zack Test 6. Andrew Durutalo 7. Folau Niua 8. Maka Unufe 9. Chris Wyles 10. Madison Hughes 11. Perry Baker 12. Nate Ebner
USA Starters v Argentina: Baker, Barrett, Bender, Hughes, Niua, Pinkelman, Unufe
USA Substitutions: Ebner and Test
Team USA Rugby Sevens – Traveling Reserves
Nate Augspurger, Martin Iosefo, Shalom Suniula
Team USA Rugby Sevens Squad | Rio 2016 Olympic Summer Games
v. Argentina – L17-14
v. Brazil – Tuesday, Aug. 9 @ 5 p.m. ET – LIVE on CNBC & online
v. Fiji – Wednesday, Aug. 10 @ 12:30 p.m. ET – LIVE on USA & online
Preview article: Team USA Men’s Rugby Opens Rio Olympic Sevens Against Argentina
View the Olympic Rugby Squads!
